The rapid rise in home prices and housing costs over the past five years has strained affordability in every part of the country, but a new study seeks to put a finer point on which metropolitan areas are getting hit the hardest.
Realtor.com calculated the share of income a typical household spends on housing by dividing its estimated median monthly housing costs by the median household income in each of the 50 largest metros and the U.S. more broadly.
For the nation as a whole, Realtor.com estimates that homeowner households spend about 44% of their pretax income on housing costs, considerably higher than the recommended 30%. Only two of the 50 largest metros are below 30% — Pittsburgh (27.4%) and Detroit (29.8%) — while St. Louis is right at 30%.
“Detroit has always stood out for its affordability, and even with home prices rising, it remains one of the last major markets where median-income buyers still have a real shot at homeownership,” Anthony Djon, founder of Anthony Djon Luxury Real Estate, said in a statement.
“That said, demand is picking up fast — especially in the lower price points. First-time buyers are moving with urgency because they know the window to buy affordably is narrowing.”
The metros where households are estimated to spend the most on housing are the usual suspects. But the hard numbers reflect just how difficult it’s become for median-income earners to afford homeownership in these places.
In Los Angeles, a household making the median income would need to spend more than double their pretax earnings to afford a home. In San Jose (72.4%), San Diego (77.1%), New York (66.9%) and Boston (64.3%), median earners must spend more than 60% of their income.
At the other end of the spectrum, Cleveland (32%); Indianapolis (33.2%); Birmingham, Alabama (33.5%); Baltimore (33.6%); and Buffalo, New York (33.7%) are within striking distance of the 30% affordability threshold.
“Earnings have risen, but homebuying costs have risen faster, which means that adhering to affordability guidelines can feel challenging if not impossible in many housing markets across the country,” Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale said in a statement.
“While a few Midwestern markets still offer a path to homeownership for the median-income household who can make a 20% down payment, in most large metros, the dream of owning a home remains out of financial reach without significant changes to either housing supply or interest rates.”
Realtor.com isn’t the only organization to release a report that highlights housing affordability problems.
In its sprawling annual report, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) disclosed data showing that in 1990, 75 of the 100 largest metro areas had a home-price-to-income ratio of under 3. But in 2024, only three metros — Akron, Ohio; Toledo, Ohio; and McAllen, Texas — met that standard.
The JCHS report also showed that between 2019 and 2023, the number of cost-burdened homeowner households — those that spend more than 30% of their income on housing — jumped from 16.7 million to 20.3 million.
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